Blue Planet II
| country = United Kingdom | language = English | num_episodes = 7 | list_episodes = | executive_producer = | producer = | location = | runtime = 60 minutes | company = | distributor = | network = | picture_format = | audio_format = | first_aired = | last_aired = | preceded_by = The Blue Planet | related = Planet Earth II | website = https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04tjbtx | production_website = }} Blue Planet II is a 2017 British nature documentary series on marine life produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. Like its predecessor, The Blue Planet (2001), it is narrated and presented by naturalist Sir David Attenborough, while the main music score was composed by Hans Zimmer. The series was debuted on 29 October 2017 and was simulcast on BBC One, BBC One HD and BBC Earth, making it the first natural history series to premiere on the same day in the United Kingdom, Nordic regions, Europe and in Asia. In the United States, the series premiered on Saturday, January 20, 2018, at 9 PM as part of a five-network simulcast on BBC America, AMC, IFC, Sundance, and WE tv. Subsequent episodes aired on successive Saturdays on BBC America. Background The series was announced by the BBC in 2013 with the working title Oceans, but the title was later changed to Blue Planet II as it revealed on 19 February 2017. Filming took place over a course of more than four years; involving 125 expeditions across 39 countries and produced more than 6,000 hours of underwater dive footage from over an estimated 4,000 dives. Music Composer Hans Zimmer returned to score the series. In September 2017, the BBC announced that the English rock band Radiohead had collaborated with Zimmer to record a new version of "Bloom", a song from their 2011 album The King of Limbs. The new track, "(ocean) Bloom", was recorded alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra. In a press release, Radiohead singer Thom Yorke said: "'Bloom' was inspired by the original Blue Planet series so it's great to be able to come full circle with the song." Broadcast British television The premiere of the series took place at Bristol's Cinema de Lux on 11 October 2017, with special guest appearance by Attenborough alongside with the producers and wildlife experts. Bristol has been the global home of BBC's Natural History programme making for the past 60 years. The series was first broadcast on 29 October 2017 (from 20:00 GMT to 21:00 GMT) on BBC One and BBC One HD. The first six episodes included a 10-minute making-of documentary called Into the Blue. The previous week's episode was repeated in an earlier time slot the following Sunday. The series was critically acclaimed and gained the highest UK viewing figure for 2017, 14.1 million. International The BBC pre-sold the series to several overseas broadcasters, which includes Canada (Blue Ant Media’s licensed channel for BBC Earth), Australia (Channel Nine) and New Zealand (TVNZ), to Europe with Denmark (DR), Netherlands (NPO), Sweden (SVT), Spain (Telefonica’s BBC Earth block), Discovery Channel for Latin America and co-production partnerships with BBC America, Germany's WDR, France Télévisions, China's Tencent and CCTV-9. The series was eventually sold to more than 30 countries. The series is set to broadcast internationally on BBC Earth channel, and also commercial television channels in various countries, besides. The series debuted in Nordic regions and other European countries on 29 October 2017. In Asia, the series began to premiere on each early Monday (from 04:05 SGT to 05:05 SGT) starting from 30 October 2017, the episode was then repeated on following each Tuesday evening (from 20:00 SGT). In Poland, it premiered on 16 November 2017. As for South Africa, it aired from 4 February 2018. In China, the premiere took place at Shanghai's East China Normal University on 27 October 2017, with guest appearance by the producer Orla Doherty and Mike Gunton, the executive producer of Planet Earth II. The series is streaming broadcast at Tencent's QQLive from 30 October 2017, with episodes updating every Monday at 18:00 CST. It would also be broadcast on the state owned China Central Television’s documentary channel, CCTV-9, with episodes airing each Monday from 6 November 2017 at 21:00 CST. In the Netherlands, the series is airing on the Dutch channel NPO 1, with episodes airing each Thursday from 28 December 2017. In Belgium, it will air on the Flemish channel Canvas, with episodes airing each Saturday starting from 2 January 2018. The series aired in Canada and the United States on 20 January 2018. In Canada, it will broadcast with a three-network simulcast across BBC Earth, Cottage Life and T+E channel. In the United States, the series premiered the first episode – with a five-network simulcast across BBC America, AMC, IFC, WE tv and Sundance TV, while the remaining episodes continued to be aired every Saturday on BBC America. It is also available on BBCAmerica.com and the BBCA app. As for Australia, the series will premiere on Nine Network and 9Now on 17 February 2018. In New Zealand, it premiered on 12 November 2017 on TVNZ 1. For Singapore, the series premiered on MediaCorp Channel 5 on Sundays starting 27 May 2018. Episodes (data available for Blue Planet II broadcast weeks by searching archive)|country=UK |aux1T= Produced by |episodes= |Viewers = N/A |ShortSummary = A 5-minute clip introduction which focuses in particular on the upcoming stories from the ocean depths. |LineColor = #345794 }} |Viewers = 14.01 |ShortSummary = The oceans are big and wide and some of the animals that live under the sea such as bottlenose dolphins that play with corals in the Red Sea, smart tuskfish that hurl clam's shells into the coral's crack, large pack of giant trevally hunting chicks of terns in atolls in the Indian Ocean, female of Asian sheepshead wrasse changing its sex to male, False killer whales join a pack of bottlenose dolphins in New Zealand, orca and humpback whale feasting in large school of herring in Norway and walrus try to resting and breeding on the melting ice in the Arctic avoiding from other walrus colonies and polar bears. |LineColor = #345794 }} |Viewers = 13.97 |ShortSummary = The depths of the ocean are among the most difficult conditions in the world. The depths of Antarctica host diverse endemic creatures. In other oceans, giant tunicate – pyrosome, swordfish and large humboldt squids cannibalize one another. The deep sea anglerfish attracts prey and fangtooths eat fish and squid. In the deep, a sperm whale carcass which are attractive to scavengers, shrimps that live in Venus' flower basket, swimming pool brine in Gulf of Mexico and the life found in the Mariana Trench. |LineColor = #345794 }} |Viewers = 13.45 |ShortSummary = Coral reefs are a large habitat that was created by tiny creatures called – coral polyp. in this area broadclub cuttlefish search prey, coral trout hunt with red octopus, Green sea turtles in Borneo cleaned by surgeon fish and blennies, bottlenose dolphins playing, bobbit worm hunt in the sands of the reef, saddleback clownfishs family take a Cocus shell and Marbled groupers in big breeding in French Polynesia. |LineColor = #345794 }} |Viewers = 13.11 |ShortSummary = In the ocean contains some of the toughest animals. Large school of spinner dolphins chase a large school of lanternfish with yellowfin tuna, sailfish and the devil ray, sperm whales with their calves, blue sharks eat a whale carcass with the world's largest predatory fish, the great white shark. Portuguese man o' war float in the current and hunt small fish, whale sharks breed in the Galapagos Islands and short-finned pilot whale in which one female with a newborn calf that was dead from plastic. |LineColor = #345794 }} |Viewers = 12.62 |ShortSummary = The green seas of the planet it the most lively area under the water. in the algae forest of kelp are common octopus escape from pyjama shark by hiding in oysters, sea otters hunting sea urchins in California, and help to scare off Garibaldi, Green sea turtle swim away in the seagrass bed in Australia from tiger sharks to stop them from overgrazing, and spider crabs, giant cuttlefish and weedy seadragon in same area, in the mangrove roots of North Australia zebra mantis shrimp hunt little fish for his mate and an amazing hunt of a large pack of common dolphins, sea lions and humpback whales feasting in school of anchovy in Monterey Bay. |LineColor = #345794 }} |Viewers = 11.45 |ShortSummary = The coasts of the planet have seen thousands of olive ridley sea turtle that come up to land to lay their eggs, Galápagos sea lion in the Galápagos Islands catch yellowfin tuna in the shallow bay of the coast, rock pool full of predators like starfish, sea anemones and clingfishes that prey on limpets and bivalves, moray eels and octopus chase after red rock crab in Brazil, puffins avoiding from parasitic jaegers, a colony of king penguins cross a colony of elephant seals and large gathering of groups of spinner shark and blacktip shark off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida. |LineColor = #345794 }} |Viewers = 11.91 |ShortSummary = Examining the role of human anthropogenic activity on the oceans. Microplastics and pollution are an increasing problem for the world's seas, threatening the lives of marine life and ultimately affecting the ecosystem. Can humans reverse their activity to protect the seas and the wildlife that inhabit it? |LineColor = #345794 }} |Viewers = N/A |ShortSummary = A 90-minute compilation episode which highlights the wonders of our world's oceans as well as filming some extraordinary animal behaviours which were never seen before. |LineColor = #345794 }} }} Reception Awards and nominations Impact The programme has been credited with raising awareness of plastic pollution both domestically and internationally, an influence dubbed the 'Blue Planet effect'. Following the programme's airing in the UK, the BBC announced its intention to completely ban single-use plastics within its organisation by 2020. In April 2018, in response to growing public support directly linked to Blue Planet II, the British government announced it is considering a national ban on single-use plastic products. It was also reported that Queen Elizabeth II's decision to ban plastic bottles and straws across the Royal estates was in part a response to the documentary. British universities such as the University of Southampton noticed a sudden increase in applications for marine biology courses following the programme's airing, which was again attributed to the 'Blue Planet effect'. It was reported that the number of people in China simultaneously streaming Blue Planet II (approximately 80 million) had a noticeable impact upon internet speeds within the country. The popularity of the documentary in China was cited as partly the reason British prime minister Theresa May gave Chinese president Xi Jinping a Blue Planet II box set signed by David Attenborough. It was also symbolic of a joint plan to tackle plastic pollution and the illegal wildlife trade, announced by British officials during Xi's 2018 visit. After the first episode aired in the UK, there was a surge in search engine enquiries about conservation charities, with the Marine Conservation Society, WWF and Plastic Oceans Foundation all receiving a significant spike in traffic. Merchandise DVD and Blu-ray The series was released as a three-disc DVD set as well as a standard Blu-ray set on 27 November 2017, and as a six-disc 4K UHD Blu-ray + Blu-ray set on 15 January 2018. It is distributed by BBC Worldwide in the UK. In the US and Canada, the DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD Blu-ray sets were released on 6 March 2018 and distributed by BBC Worldwide Americas. Book An accompanying hardback book was written by James Honeyborne and Mark Brownlow, with foreword by David Attenborough. It was published by BBC Books ( ). The book was released on 19 October 2017 in the UK }} and on 1 January 2018 in the US. Open University poster A free poster was made available through the Open University's OpenLearn website. Soundtrack The musical score and songs featured in the series were composed by Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea and David Fleming for Bleeding Fingers Music. A digital soundtrack was released on 29 October 2017, while a single physical disc was released on 1 December 2017 in the UK. The soundtrack was released as special edition LP for Record Store Day on 21 April 2018. References External links * * Blue Planet II at BBC Earth * Blue Planet II at BBC Earth Asia * Blue Planet II at BBC Media Centre * Blue Planet II OpenLearn at The Open University * * Blue Planet II at NHK Category:2017 British television series debuts Category:2017 British television series endings Category:2010s British documentary television series Category:BBC high definition programmes Category:BBC television documentaries Category:BBC Television programmes Category:David Attenborough Category:Documentary films about marine biology Category:English-language television programs Category:Television series scored by Hans Zimmer Category:Television series scored by Jacob Shea Category:Television series scored by Jasha Klebe